Questions about Irfan and the Answers of Ayatollah Al-Ansari

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

Peace and salutations be upon Mohammad and his holy Progeny

Dear respected Brother --------,

Assalamu Alaykom Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakatuh

We received your following questions:

• What is the meaning of the concept of 'Irfan'?
• Is 'Irfan' a specialty of the mujtahid scholars?
• Is 'vision' or seeing through the metaphysical dimension, part of Irfan?
• What is the stance for the one who informs the public about special traits of some individuals that only Allah (swt) can confirm?
• Is the narration from Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them) that "whoever purifies himself for forty days, then the rivers of wisdom will flow from his heart to his tongue" a manifestation of Irfan?
• What is the meaning of the statement in Imam Zainul Abedeen's Supplication of the Knowers (Aarefeen): "they feed upon the gardens of nearness and disclosure"; and does it mean the people who practice Irfan?
• Finally, what do you advise us when encountering such a character who is dressed in the scholarly attire?

Answer:

Irfan has been defined as 'a special method to reach the realities of existence and to connect man to truth, which is done through vision, enlightenment, attainment and unifying with the truth'.

It is stated that knowing God can be achieved through two methods;

1. The first takes place through the heart and vision; and

2. The second takes the path of logic and reasoning.

Irfan concentrates on the first path, which is based on human nature. As humans, we have within ourselves a desire to reach absolute perfection and to be closer to the holy presence of God. With this comes a conviction that the Prophets and Messengers of God had one central aim - that is, to establish the basic foundations and making them accessible for the humans to utilise in order to achieve this goal.

This is different from the extraordinary insight and powers which your question alluded to. This type of extraordinary insight is quite similar to dreams however not entirely the same. The extraordinary powers may have a divine source enabling one to perform super-natural tasks such as healing the sick and so on. However, these concepts can be mixed and misunderstood especially where there is no experimental basis to measure their accuracy.

We emphasise that these concepts can be mixed because there are other types of extraordinary insights. To add, there are acts performed using extraordinary powers by certain individuals who have been under deep meditation and are able to exert some control over their worldly desires. Most of these extraordinary insights and powers can also be traced directly to Satan himself. These extraordinary insights and powers are not exclusive to one religious denomination - that is why you see these powers in certain unbelievers, sinful people, pagan worshippers of stone and wood. The critical point here is that being able to differentiate between extraordinary acts that are devilish and others which are pure is not an easy task and most people will not be able to do so. That is primarily because in order to be able to differentiate between the right and the wrong requires understanding of the unseen and this is a very complicated discipline and domain.

Therefore, we advise our dear brothers and sisters to keep away from such topics and concepts as they cannot be reliably measured, observed or verified experimentally. What is worse is that with a lot of these extraordinary powers and acts they can be used by certain people to claim higher than normal positions and statuses that they are not worthy of at all.

And Allah is the supporter and benefactor!

It is possible to measure this entire concept and its variations with reference to two foundations of religious faith, namely the Quran and Sunnah (narrations and traditions of the Prophet and Ahlul Bayt). It is known that whatever aligns and concurs with these two is correct and whatever does not is of evil and should be avoided. In order to determine whether an act, statement, claim etc does in fact concur with the Quran and Sunnah requires academic rigour - which is best left to learned scholars of faith.

A good reference to complement this discussion is the book titled ‘Islamic Beliefs’ written by Sheikh Ali Al-Korani. The important points that you should be aware of are as follows (with our comments in brackets):

"1. Few holy narrations have been mentioned in commentary of this verse [he means the verse (We shall show them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth) as they have used this for dividing Maarefah (knowledge) into knowing the horizons and knowing the self] that it is about the signs of the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (peace be upon him) or about what will be performed by him. It has also been suggested that the horizons are meant to be the corners of Earth that will collapse on the tyrants near the time of our Imam’s reappearance. This notion is backed up by the use of the grammatical structure of the verse in Arabic pointing to the event being in the future. Otherwise, God would have said (We have shown them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves) or (have they not considered the horizons) as He stated in another verse (Have they not considered the dominion of the heavens and the earth).

[Or the meaning might indicate that God intended the great scientific advancements that are being achieved my humanity, which seems to be more fitting as this is clear in our era of technological advancements in all aspects of life - from the microscopic to the macroscopic fields. It is also interesting that many of these discoveries have been touched upon within the verses of the Quran, which can indicate that this Book cannot be of a human origin, rather it has been revealed by the Creator whom has absolute knowledge about everything].

2. It is beyond any doubt that pondering over the dominion of the heavens and Earth and increasing human knowledge about understanding this phenomenon and learning its lessons is a religiously recommended deed, that will lead towards knowing Allah (swt) more and strengthening belief in Him; as God states: (Have they not considered the dominion of the heavens and the Earth, and what things Allah has created, and that it may be that their own term draws near? In what fact after this will they believe?) 7:185; especially that the human self (nafs) is part of this dominion and one of these horizons rather than being another path distinct from other horizons.

3. Their quoted narration, (knowledge of one's self is the best of the two types of knowledge), has no accredited reference and is even unlikely to be a holy narration. Besides, if it is assumed to be accurate, it still does not convey the meaning that they (may God bless their souls) promote. This is because the other types of higher knowledge are the knowledge of Allah about Himself, knowledge of Allah about His prophets and friends, or knowledge of Allah about His signs other than the self (nafs). So how did they (may God bless their souls) decide that the knowledge is only divided to that of self and of the horizons? And what can indicate the existence of only these two options? Moreover, if the knowledge in an upright manner includes the knowledge of Allah about Himself and His prophets, then how is knowing Allah through the path of one’s self can be better than knowing him through these higher means?

4. The obligatory extent of knowing Allah has been researched well by the scholars of jurisprudence and philosophers but none of them mentioned various pathways or made one better than the other. It has also been agreed that knowledge about Allah is created by Him and invested in the soul of the human involuntarily as a favour from His Almighty.

5. It is established that the suggestion about purifying and keeping one’s self away from sins, desires and worldly matters is the first vital step in achieving the religious goal of worshiping Allah (swt); as His Almighty states: (I created the jinn and humankind only that they might worship Me) and (He it is Who has sent among the people of Mecca a messenger of their own, to recite unto them His revelations and to make them grow in purity). Moreover, Quranic verses and holy narrations concentrate on purifying the self and struggling against it, as well as opposing it in its worldly desires, which are all done through practical deeds other than that which the Sufis and practicers of Irfan promote about the path of self knowledge. Although purifying the self depends on knowing it to an extent.

6. If we assume that purifying, struggling with and opposing the self are the same concepts as knowing the self that the Sufis and Irfan practisers promote, then this might lead us to a dangerous path. This is because promoting knowing the Almighty God and obeying Him through self knowledge by meditation and ignoring own desires might lead to many dangers that are not acceptable at all; as it will eventually include many opposing and conflicting ideas and grey areas that will contain a mix of aims, means and idols...This becomes even a bigger concern when some of these claimed paths to knowing God through knowing one’s self provoke isolation and monk-hood; while some others take the fight to better one's self as well as society or government. Some will invite followers to follow the rulings of a certain school of thought. Others will ask followers to imitate the head master of the path (Sheikh of Tariqa) or the ethics teacher and their alike without the need of referring to anyone else for religious rulings or principles. Some even might go to the extent of claiming express connection with Allah through knowing Him so that the beliefs and rulings are revealed to them directly; therefore, there is no need for religious law nor prophet-hood. Some also might choose role models from within Companions or worshipers other than those that God and His Prophet have chosen as the true leaders of this Nation. Some even may take non-Muslim spiritual teachers and Sufis as an example to imitate... etc. These varieties of potential means, goals and role models will lead to very problematic outcomes. Therefore, it is difficult for us to invite people to know Allah through knowing self and tell them to follow their teacher until one of them reaches Allah and becomes an all knowledgeable teacher himself! Be aware that it is then very easy for the Devil (Satan) to cross their road and lead them astray. [This is because differentiating between these concepts is a very difficult process as Irfan is a broad set of concepts which is contained within many schools such as Sufism that Imams (peace be upon them) have openly and strongly criticised, and religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and others. Therefore, it is observed with caution because of the potential to confuse concepts some acceptable and others delish].

7. Love of self is the strongest of human desires, therefore, inviting lay people, even the educated ones, to follow the path of Irfan and Sufism without providing the exact guidelines about the means, goals and role models, may lead them to worship themselves and imagine great positions for themselves such as reaching the Almighty Allah and having a direct communication with Him. They may eventually imagine themselves to be a medium of Godly secrets. Basically, the Satan will paint them an imaginary world of self worth and self affection that might lead them to make false claims and lead people astray. May God protect us all from these misconceptions! Therefore, imitating the righteous ones in this path of knowledge and identifying its means and goals are the first vital steps in the whole process. It is obligatory to pay attention to the role model in knowing one's self and following the practice needed, before inviting people to follow a leaderless path.

8. Knowing one's self for Sufis is a path to knowing the Almighty Allah and knowing Him is a path to worshiping him. Therefore, the goal is agreed upon by all, which is the worship of Allah alone. This worship is the main aim of this creation and it is the only path for reaching human perfection. This is achieved by obeying Him (swt) and obeying His Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) and Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them), the authority that God and His Prophet have ordered us to obey and follow. Therefore, the invitation to the knowledge of self, Irfan and purifying the soul as well as planting the good characters within it have to all be bounded by obeying the religious rulings to the last extent. It also ought to have the Prophet and the Imams as the role models in all means and practices for it to be a correct path for life that will eventually lead to the acceptance of Allah (swt). On this basis, one of the jurists answered a question about practicing Irfan by stating that (these religious rulings that you practice in your daily life, from praying via performing the obligatory acts to avoiding prohibitory acts are all Irfan. In other words, you are actually gaining knowledge about God through your everyday practice anyway. You are also aware that these practices have levels and gradual statuses. So Irfan can only be achieved through this path that the Prophet, his Progeny and their students have followed and not by any other mean).".

The above shows us that Irfan is not a speciality of only scholars and mujtahids. It may also contain within its boundaries many extraordinary or unobservable concepts such as metaphysical vision and enlightenment.

Regarding the narration from the infallible Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them) that "whoever purifies himself for forty days, then the rivers of wisdom will flow from his heart to his tongue". This is one of the manifestations of nearness to Allah (swt) and is different from the overall definition of Irfan, as you may notice in the above discussion.

Regarding the statement in Imam Zainul Abedeen's Supplication of the Knowers (Aarefeen): "they feed upon the gardens of nearness and disclosure"; and does it mean the people who practice Irfan? This is a high status that no one can posses except the Imams (peace be upon them) and may extend to some of the people who gained knowledge from them. God knows the reality more, but overall, we are not allowed to claim this position for anyone other than the Imams (peace be upon them) and no one is allowed to claim it for himself either. Furthermore, if someone claimed such a status then this is enough to show his falsehood as the people who posses such great position are much higher than to mention it publicly.

May praise and gratitude be to Allah at the beginning and the end.

Wasalam

Mohammad Hussein Al-Ansari

21/ Holy Dhul Hijjah/ 1423

23/ February/ 2003